Chapter 126: Night of the Banquet (2)
Lexie’s boots echoed heavily in the tight silence as she stepped inside the tower room. The rancid air coiled in her throat the moment she crossed the threshold, and she quickly lifted a hand to cover her mouth and nose.
Her eyes swept across the chamber, dim, derelict, and mournfully still, before they landed on Etienne standing frozen by the decaying bed.
"Is that..." she trailed off, but the rest of the question hung in the air, too dreadful to finish.
Etienne didn’t answer. His gaze was fixed on the bed, his eyes wide and unblinking. Slowly, he stepped closer, but each inch forward only made the stench worse, and the reality clearer.
"No," he murmured, his voice cracking with disbelief. "No, this can’t be right. Noir was expecting his mother to be here. Alive. Perhaps this person is not..." his voice trailed off when he saw the light pink hair scattered around the skull.
Lexie looked away, her brows furrowing. "Etienne..." she said gently, but he didn’t seem to hear her.
All their efforts—Noir’s hopes, the risks they’d taken—Etienne’s healing gift that he had guarded so closely for this moment... for what? For a corpse.
He hesitated just a step from the bed, his hand trembling as he reached out, almost as if a miracle might still linger beneath the heavy blanket of death. But the closer he got, the heavier the air became. The stench was no illusion, no curse. It was rotten. Unmistakably.
"Etienne!" Lexie hissed, suddenly alert.
He looked up at her, startled. Lexie was by the window, looking out.
"Someone noticed the guards weren’t on their post. They’re coming," she said quickly. "We have to leave. Now."